- Dragonfruit, photo by Louise Kollenbaum
Last week a writer colleague and friend of mine, Kamy Wicoff, wrote in her blog on shewrites.com:
“I don’t put on extra pounds at the holidays; I do it in August, July and June. In the hot summer months, I never say no to a hotdog at the baseball game, a donut for breakfast at the beach, or smores after dinner. (I don’t always look great in my bathing suit, but I can do a mean cannonball.)”
I wonder how your summer went? Did you go on a fruit and juice diet that made you want to put on your shorts and bathing suit? Did you use your vacation time calmly preparing meals and snacks for the hCG diet?
Many people think the best time for a diet is vacation time. Behavioral scientists argue that changing life habits — like eating habits — is easiest when we make use of an already given change in our daily routine Vacation tears us out of our normal habits, therefore we are more easily reprogramming our mind and body for a more substantial life change, like a change of diet or a general change in our way of eating.
Others maintain that the vacations are the worst time for a diet, and I confess I am a candidate for that group, like my pal Kamy. I think vacations are a time of indulgence in most ways, and certainly in ways of eating. For me, vacations go with treats, special allowances, easing up on rules and regulations. Maybe I was lucky this time that my vacation was not in France (croissants! baguettes! Camembert!) or Germany (potato salad! cream sauce! Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte!) but in Hawaii. My holiday passion was papaya fresh from the trees, and passion fruit (lilikoi). Kim and I cooked meals with vegetables and tofu, Hawaii onions, ginger and spicy herbs. There was a great health food store, “Mana” on Maui, there were eco farms and farmer’s markets with exquisite vegetables and fruit. This said, we also indulged in exotic cocktails at Happy Hour on the beach, and luck had it that in Kula, where we stayed, a French bakery-café had opened with — you guessed it — divine croissants, quiches and tartes…
I can confess that I returned with a 5-pound weight gain, just as I tend to do whenever I take a break and travel. In the past, I would have been nervous and felt bad about such a return. Not any more. I’ve found my perfect remedy: I go on a one-day-gorge and a 5-day to 1-week-hCG “cleanse.”
The last two times (after a visit to France and now) I used the Advanced 1000 Amino Acids (see in the Corner Store) with a 500-calorie diet, confident that shedding one pound per day I would be back to normal in less than a week. And I was. This time, too, it was like clock-work — and once again, I was surprised and grateful to know such an easy way to keep my balance. Advanced 1000 doesn’t have to be refrigerated and the opened bottle will calmly wait to serve me the next time I may need it again. That might be the holidays, you never know.
For now, I am ready for Fall.